Eco-Makeover Ideas + How-tos

Watch highlights from an eco-friendly kitchen makeover with designer Evette Rios from Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. Plus, get design ideas for countertops, backsplashes, linoleum flooring, paint and more. From our collection of Kitchen Makeover videos.

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-Hey, I'm Evette Rios and I'm Rachael's design buddy. And I'm in a kitchen that I recently made over for a young couple that had some problems with their kitchen that they wanted some eco friendly solutions that didn't cost a lot of money. Let me show you what we did. So, the first thing was in every kitchen, you wanna make sure you've got a nice work triangle. That's the distance between the stove, the sink, and the refrigerator. Before, in the old kitchen, the stove was right up next to the fridge, which doesn't make for a good work triangle, but also is not good for your utility bill. Imagine this, a hot stove next to a cold fridge, not a good combination. So, what I did was I created this peninsula here and put the stove right in the middle. So now, you've got a nice work triangle between all 3 spaces. Another one of the problems in the kitchen was lack of storage space. They used to have before 30-inch cabinets. And now, I put in 39-inch cabinets. And this is a great tip if you happen to have ceilings that are over 8 feet tall in your kitchen. You can always put in a taller cabinet like this. It gives you that extra 9 inches and boy are you gonna use it. The other thing that we did was in every little nook and cranny, we added some storage space. Like check this out. I mean Lazy Susans is one thing, but this is pretty awesome. And this is from IKEA. If you happen to have a corner cabinet, you can retrofit something like this into a cabinet you already have. This goes right in and then it slides out so you use every little inch of space in there. If you happen to have filler panels and everybody does when you're installing a cabinet. Things don't fit just right, so you've got fillers. Why not install something like this that makes use of the space behind the filler panel? So here, I needed a 6-inch panel to make my cabinets fit and I put in this cool pull-out spice rack. So now, it's not just wasted space. It's actually usable space. And now, I wanna tell you guys about some of the eco friendly product I used in this kitchen makeover. Like this countertop, for instance, is actually made of recycled paper! Can you believe it? It's the neatest thing. They actually pulped the paper. They add the pigment to it and then squish it down with this eco resin. I chose white because I thought it offset the dark brown cabinets pretty well. It made sure that the kitchen was nice and modern. And believe it or not, this stuff is just as hard and just as durable as any other countertop material you can get. And then check out this back splash. It's pretty unavoidable because it's bright and gorgeous. I just love it. And this is actually made of recycled glass. All the extra scraps that you get when you cut the glass is reused in other sorts of backsplash applications like this so there's no waste. I really dig that. And then for the floor, I chose good old fashion linoleum. Your grandma probably had this in her floor and this stuff is great and I'll tell you why. It's made of linseed oil and sawdust. Totally biodegradable. Totally eco friendly. And because it comes in a ton of colors and it comes in these 12 x 12 tiles so you can mix and match and pick any pattern you want, for this floor, I chose a basket weave pattern. Let me show you guys 2 other products I used in the breakfast nook. And check out this table I need for the kitchen. You won't need what this top is made out of. It's actually recycled sugarcane. This is what's leftover after they make sugar and molasses. It makes such a cook tabletop material. And then for the base, I actually use an IKEA pedestal, really inexpensive. I painted it a cool green so it looked good in the kitchen. And this is a great idea if you happen to find a pedestal base at a thrift store or flea market, garage sale. You can always use that and mix and match recycled material, used material, whatever you've got. And what's great about the pedestal table is because it doesn't have legs, you can fit a lot more seating around it. And now, for the walls, because we all need a little paint, right? This is actually a low VOC paint. Manufacturers make low VOC paint and no VOC paint. VOC stands for volatile organic compound. And in general, it's not great stuff to breathe in. So, if you're worried about your family's health or well being, you might wanna consider a low or no VOC paint. Well, I hope some of my eco tips are useful to you guys and you incorporate 'em into your kitchen. Thanks so much for watching.